


When It's Over

by PsychoMantis



Category: The Evil Within (Video Game)
Genre: Blood, Canon-Typical Violence, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mental Health Issues, Panic Attacks, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-03
Updated: 2015-01-03
Packaged: 2018-03-05 02:54:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3102866
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PsychoMantis/pseuds/PsychoMantis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sure, it's over, but it's never really over, is it?</p>
<p>Joseph has trouble dealing with his job after the events with the STEM.</p>
            </blockquote>





	When It's Over

**Author's Note:**

> Written from an Anonymous prompt on my tumbles! It was the first thing I'd written in a while.

There was blood everywhere.

The crime scene was absolutely covered in blood- walls, cushions, floor, several framed photos.

_Sure_ , Sebastian thought, gritting his teeth through a wave of nausea, you’d think he’d be used to it by now. It had only been a month since the nightmare with the STEM and Ruvik, after all, and in comparison? This shit was pretty tame.

He and Joseph had checked out for service and been declared fit after two weeks or so of mandatory counseling. Still, it wasn’t like they could really explain most of what had happened to anyone; Sebastian still wasn’t clear on that himself. And with nobody to really believe them, it was up to them to move on alone.

Despite any reservations they might have had, neither he nor Joseph could think of anything to do with themselves other than going back into detective work. It was the only thing they’d ever really known.

So there they’d ended up, in another goddamn bloodbath.

It made him feel like absolute shit to admit, but Sebastian didn’t feel one-hundred percent confident that he could handle the violence of the scene, or the things it made him remember. Oh, he’d deal- he’d worked through worse, after all (not even counting Ruvik), he just hadn’t been prepared for how much he didn’t _want_ to.

“Um, any witnesses?” Sebastian asked the officer he’d been touring the scene with.

He rubbed the bridge of his nose distractedly and tried to ignore the twinge of sadness at the glaring fact that the man wasn’t Connelly. Wouldn’t ever be Connelly at the scene with him ever again.

“No, sir,” the officer said, “at least, none have come forward yet.”

“Well, fuck,” Sebastian sighed.

The officer grunted in way of agreement.

“Uh, Detective…Oda, was it? You still with me?” someone said in the adjacent room.

“Excuse me a moment,” Sebastian said. He didn't wait for an answer before he walked off and found his way into the kitchen. He’d left Joseph there earlier, talking to the person who’d discovered the body.

“Y-yeah,” Joseph said. He hastily shut his small notebook with shaking hands and turned away from the small woman he’d been questioning.

Joseph looked fucking terrible. His complexion was unhealthily pallid, and there were beads of sweat collecting at the tip of his nose.

“Detective, I just need you to take a look at something-“ an officer said, coming up behind Joseph where he had leaned over the kitchen sink. The man put his hand on Joseph’s shoulder, and even Sebastian jumped a little when Joseph twitched violently, shaking the man’s hand off.

“Not right now,” Joseph snapped.

“Hey, partner, got a minute?” Sebastian said, walking over to Joseph with as much confidence as he could muster. He smiled sympathetically at the officer as he passed, who gaped for a second at Joseph before walking off.

Joseph turned to Sebastian and his expression shifted from irritation to something very like desperation.

“What’s going on with you, man?” Sebastian said quietly, sidling up beside Joseph.

Joseph took a few deep, juddering breaths and stared into the sink a moment.

“I-I’m fine, I just-“ Joseph said, running a hand through his hair. Sebastian noticed that his hair, usually immaculate, was badly out-of-sorts. He must have been pawing through his hair for a while.

“Really? ’Cause you look sort of,” Sebastian said, clapping his partner on the back, “fucked.”

Sebastian was concerned when Joseph didn’t even bother to glare. He just tightened his grip on the rim of the kitchen sink, like he was trying to tether himself back to the earth. The tremors traveled from his hands to the whole of his torso.

“What if this isn’t real, Sebastian?” Joseph whispered, spreading his hands in front of him, “what if this isn’t real?”

“Joseph, what are you talking about?”

“What if…it’s happening all over again?” Joseph hissed, shaking his head like he was trying to dislodge some unpleasant though, “how do we know we’re not still trapped? That we never got out?”

“Whoa, listen, I’m-“

“How the fuck are we supposed to know?!” Joseph said.

His voice was loud and his eyes were unfocused, beginning to glisten with tears.

“Let’s get some air,” Sebastian announced to the room.

He grabbed Joseph by the arm and steered him through the house. He shrugged and grinned- _partners, right?_ – to the assemblage of confused beat cops they passed. He watched Joseph’s chest rise and fall with irregular, panting breaths as he turned and led them into the shaded pathway just outside the house’s garage.

“You’re not okay,” Sebastian said, more to himself than anything else.

He moved Joseph to lean against the cement of the garage wall, letting him go and taking a step back. He wasn’t sure it was a good idea to be touching him right now.

Joseph reached up and trailed shaking fingers along his cheek, staring vacantly at the ground.

“I can’t- if I have to, I can’t- I don’t think I could again,” Joseph stammered, voice hushed. Tears spilled down his face and between his fingers.

“Hey, hey, slow down Jojo,” Sebastian said, holding his hands palm-out to Joseph, “you keep breathing like that, you’re gonna pass out. Try taking a deep breath. What’re you talking about? Don’t think you could what?”

Joseph nodded, covering his face with his hands for a moment, and took a single, quavering breath.

“Stop myself.”

“Stop yourself?” Sebastian furrowed his brow.

“F-from- from turning,” Joseph gasped, curling his hands into fists, and he dissolved into choked sobs.

“Turning?”

“Promise me…promise me you’ll kill me if I do,” Joseph said hoarsely, tears dripping from his chin.

He watched Joseph press a hand to his midsection, where he’d taken two bullets, both of them remembering scars that should have been there, by all rights, but never really manifested. Had turned up in their heads instead.

“Kill you- Joseph, stop. I’ll be the one reporting **your** ass to IA if you keep talking like that,” Sebastian said.

He eyed Joseph’s gun holster warily.

“If we end up- if we’re still there- I don’t want to be one of those… things,” Joseph said through clenched teeth.

He was swaying slightly on his feet and Sebastian worried that he was going to hyperventilate himself into a white-out.

“Jesus Jojo,” Sebastian breathed, and reached out to place a tentative hand on Joseph’s shoulder, “look, this is the real world, okay? We’re not…we’re not back there, wherever that was. Ruvik’s head. This isn’t it. We’re not there. This is real.”

“You don’t know that, Sebastian!”

“I DO know that, for fuck’s sake, Joseph! You really think Ruvik would let us so much as sleep without some- some fucked-up spider monster chasing us down for this long? You think I haven’t considered that, too? That I didn’t lose sleep for days, worrying about whether or not I was going to wake up, back in that goddamn hell-hole, any minute?”

Sebastian scrubbed at his face, letting his arms fall limp against his sides. Joseph’s ragged breathing echoed in the small alley space, and for a moment Sebastian felt lost and very tired.

“It’s over,” Sebastian said in an oddly quiet voice; the voice he usually reserved for Leslie and stray cats.

He grabbed Joseph by both shoulders, and shook him slightly.

Joseph fell forward against Sebastian, gripping onto his vest with a strangled sound. Sebastian just held his shoulders while he cried, blinking the surprise away for a moment before wrapping his arms around Joseph and crushing him close.

Joseph’s heartbeat felt impossibly quick against his chest and Sebastian tentatively began to stroke his back with slow, rhythmic movements.

“You gotta trust me on this, Jojo,” Sebastian murmured into his partner’s hair, “it’s over. We’re okay.”

He sank down until he was sitting back on his heels, guiding Joseph so that he was kneeling, still trembling with his face buried against Sebastian’s neck.

“Well, I mean…okay-ish, I guess,” Sebastian said, surreptitiously sliding Joseph’s gun out of its holster and slipping it into his waistband, “not sure we were ever 100% to begin with.”

Joseph chuckled weakly, wrapping an arm around Sebastian’s neck.

“Speak for yourself,” Joseph said.

Sebastian carded his fingers through Joseph’s hair absently, laughing.

They stayed like that for a few minutes- Sebastian lost track of how long exactly- just feeling Joseph’s breathing start to even out, petting his hair and repeating whatever soft, soothing things he could think to say.

“You back with me now, Jojo?” Sebastian asked gently, tracing small circles across his shoulder blades.

Joseph nodded against Sebastian’s neck, pulling back slightly and clearing his throat.

“Good,” Sebastian said with a grin, “’cause you’ve been soaking my good vest.”

Joseph shoved him playfully, slumping back against his shoulder with a sigh.

“I’m sorry, Seb,” he said.

Sebastian used the sleeve of his dress shirt to wipe the tears from Joseph’s cheek.

“You don’t have to apologize,” Sebastian said with a shrug.

“Seriously, that was…unprofessional, and a little hysterical, and I won’t-“

“Shut up.”

“I was just…suddenly, it was too much. The smell, all that blood, it was just like-“

Sebastian pulled Joseph’s head up and kissed him softly on the forehead.

“Wh-what-“

“Just like being back there,” Sebastian finished for him with a reassuring squeeze, “not your fault.”

Joseph wiped his face with the heel of his palm, shaking the wetness off his glove with a scowl.

“Guess we better get back in there,” Joseph sighed.

Sebastian stood, pulling Joseph up with him. He frowned when Joseph lurched and pressed his hand briefly to his temple, limbs trembling.

“Oh no you don’t,” Sebastian said, looping an arm around Joseph’s waist, “we’re getting the hell out of here. Getting some food. Taking a nap. You’re not going back in there today.”

“Seb, we have to finish the investigation-“

“There wasn’t anything for us to go on, anyway. We can ask around the neighborhood tomorrow. Not like the guy’s gonna be any less dead in the morning.”

“Sebastian!”

“Consider it a favor to me, then.”

Joseph frowned at Sebastian, but let himself be led away to the car.

“Fine,” Joseph huffed.

The way Sebastian smiled almost made it worth it.

He loaded Joseph into the car, ignoring the protests when he sat him down and buckled him in before climbing into the driver’s seat.

They drove in comfortable silence for a time, Joseph peering thoughtfully over his glasses at Sebastian’s profile.

“Thanks, Seb,” Joseph said quietly.

“Huh? Oh, sure, anytime.”

“Do you think…”

“Hm?”

“Uh, do you think, I could…I could stay with you? Just for today,” Joseph said, tugging nervously on one of his gloves.

“Well, I was going to insist you did anyway,” Sebastian said, glancing over to Joseph with a smirk, “not leaving you on your own after that.”

“Oh. Well, thanks,” Joseph said, turning to stare out the window. He wasn’t too keen on letting Sebastian see if his face looked as hot as it felt right then.

He was startled when Sebastian reached over and placed a hand over his own. Joseph was sure he was flushed now, and caught the quick, unsure look Sebastian shot him.

He ran his thumb along Sebastian’s hand in response, twining their fingers together gingerly.


End file.
